Hidden Origins
by Shadows of the Soul
Summary: Dana, Eike and Margarete discover their true identities.
1. Who am I?

Disclaimer: I do not own Shadow of Memories/Destiny. 

This Fan Fiction is based on ending A, and D and contains spoilers.

Chapter 1: Who am I?

Life...it was so colourful, so wonderful in this time, and it was all thanks to him. Eike, her saviour. She remembered his smile, his compassion, even when dealing with Hugo.

Hugo was the only cloud on her glided horizon, her brother who had tried to kill Eike, the man who had brought her to this time...and the man who she loved ever since he had rescued her from the vicious woman, harrying her over her choice of clothes. The twenty year old girl smiled. If only they could see her now, in a red,midriff exposing top, her brown hair cut short with a pair of black, what were they called in this strange time...jeans. Yes that was it.

Anyway the Homunculus had fooled Hugo into going with a spirit that the demon had conjured in the image of Dr Wagner, their father and made Hugo disappear into nowhere.

Margarete Wagner paused in her tracks, half way down a winding street in the German town of Lebensbaum on her way back to her adoptive home of the Brum museum, to wipe away a tear in her brown eyes. She was fond of Hugo and yet...

Her speed at recovering from her brother's disapperance, and in all likelihood, demise, bothered her. It was something she had since she was a little girl. Her lack of love for her family. Oh, she had cared for them, and all that, but when it came down it... she didn't and never had loved them. She'd always felt detached from them somehow. Not least for her looks. While her family all had very blond hair and blue eyes, except for her father, Dr Wagner who had brown hair (and as he had told her, his hair used be to blond until his late thirties) and bright green eyes, the exact same shade as Eike's. Margarete had mid-coloured brown hair and brown eyes.

As she had grown up, her feelings of unease over her feelings for her family had gradually decreased, but they had come back rushing back to her when she had met the Eckart's and they adopted her. She had loved them like a real family immediately.

She was just going home, after a exhaustive shopping spree with Eike. Laden down with bags she continued to make her way back to the Brum museum, which had felt far more like a home than the Alchemist's house (now a desolate ruin) ever had.

Getting to the house she decided to surprise Eckart, whom Margarete knew would be in his study, Miriam, Margarete's adoptive mother was out at the Cafe Sonne chatting with the owner.

Sneaking to the study door, Margarete pushed the door open a crack, and peeped in. Inside Eckart sat sadly at his desk examining a comb.

"Dana..." Eckart whispered. Margaretes eyes opened wide as she saw the comb. All thoughts of surprise fleeing her mind, she pushed the door so hard that it flew open and cracked against the wall. Eckart glanced up in surprise. An older man, his mid-brown hair only covered a circle round his head, his brown eyes a mirror of Margarete's. Quickly Eckart tried to hide the comb.

"Margarete. I didn't hear you come in," Eckart said with a failing attempt at a smile.

"Where...where did you get that comb?" Margarete said.

"Someone..gave to me. It's the only thing I have left of Dana," Eckart spoke softly. Margarete didn't know who Dana was, and right then she didn't care.

"That's my comb! I gave it to Eike!" Margarete exclaimed. "Did Eike give that comb?"

Somewhere inside her a voice said: Dana. Wasn't that the name of the girl Eike was searching for? Another voice inside Margarete's head answered: That's not important right now!

"I used to run this comb through Dana's hair...before she disappeared." Eckart interrupted Margarete's thoughts.

"Did Eike give you that comb?" Margarete demanded. Eckart sighed. 

"Margarete, I love you like my daughter Dana, so I won't hide the truth from you. I'm warning you though, you won't like it."

Eckhart told Margarete about how he tried to kill Eike because a young man had offered to return Dana to him if he did. Margarete was shocked, but the worst shock was yet to come.

"That comb belonged to my daughter, that's why Eike gave it to me. You know Margarete, (he sighed) my daughter, Dana, would have looked a lot like you if she was here today,"

"And that's why you adopted me," Margarete said, miserably.

"Yes...if you want the truth, but we do love you. It's almost as though you were Dana and she had never been taken from us." Eckart said.

Margarete wasn't listening. Something was slowly dawning on her. 

"I can't remember where I got that comb. I've had it for as long as I can remember," She wanted so badly to tell Eckart about Eike and her adventure, but she had promised Eike that she would never tell anybody. She looked at Eckart, thinking of telling him, and then thought how much he looked like her.

The comb. The resemblance between her and the Eckarts. And what was it Eike had said as she told him about her new life at the Eckarts "_You could almost say you had come home," _before flashing that smile at her, and her own feelings about the Wagner's and the Brum's. The Digipad, travelling through time. Eckart had told her how Dana had vanished twenty years ago without trace after an attack in a street.

No it couldn't be possible. She could not be Dana Brum. Then why couldn't she get rid of the feeling that she belonged here, where as she felt like an intruder with her real family.

Margarete spun round and ran out of the study. There was no way she could find out the answers but she knew someone who could answer some of her questions.

Eike stood in the marketplatz staring at the tree, thinking about how he had cheated fate, just so Homunculus could be created. He had been used, but there was nothing he could do about it now, Homunculus was dead, but not without taking Hugo. He shook his long blond hair back, his thoughts careering off to Margarete and Dana. They were back in their proper times, Dana in the fifteen hundreds and Margarete in 2001, but they were twenty, they had missed out on so much of their lives. Dana would never find her real family, they were all dead now. And Eckart, even though he finally had his daughter back, he would never know that Margarete was really Dana. All these lives messed up.

It wasn't the first time that Eike had wondered if his life was really worth that much.

"EIKE!" a voice called behind him. Eike spun round. Margarete ran up to him panting. 

"What's wrong Margarete? You look like you just ran across the town," Eike asked, concerned. Margarete looked Eike in the eye.

"Did you ever find Dana?" Margarete asked.

"Dana?" Eike said, confused.

"The girl you were looking for in my time," Margarete reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, I found her," Eike told her.

"Eike...You told me once that you thought I was your ancestress, why did you let me stay here?" Margarete asked directly.

"What...well...I...Why ask so suddenly?" Eike was clearly flustered.

"Am I Eckhart's daughter, Dana?" Margarete could think of no better way of putting it. Eike gasped.

"That's absurd!" he told her.

"It's true isn't it? I'm Dana," Margarete said more as a statement than a question. 

"I'm sorry Marga...Dana. I didn't know...at least not until the end. It was Homunculus. She switched you...she knew all the time who the killer was. I'm sorry." Eike told her softly.

"Does Dana...Margarete know...?" Dana asked.

"No. I didn't know either when I found her." Eike said.

"What...so her life is gonna be messed up too," Dana said. She turned on Eike "You knew and you didn't tell me! I had a right to know who I really am! How could you!"

"Dana...I'm really sorry," Eike said. "Margarete. I hope you find out who you really are too."

I hope you like the first part of my Fan Fiction. If I do get any reviews, could I please point out that I know that Wagner had brown eyes in Shadow of Memories/Destiny, and this point wil be addressed in later chapters.

  


  



	2. Ages Past

Chapter 2: Ages Past.

  


The young chamber maid walked briskly out of the artist shop, hugging herself as protection against the chilly evening air. Dressed in her old fashioned servants dress, that fitted in perfectly with the Middle Ages, where she was now, she thought fleeting of the warm winter clothes of 2001, and smiled remembering her very short skirt that she wore as part of her uniform at the Cafe Sonne where she used to work.

  


Flicking her blonde hair back Dana began to make her way back to the Squires manor where she worked. She thought wistfully of Rick, the young an she had met and fallen in love with at the manor, currently away on some errands for the poncy squire.

  


It had been four years. Four years since she had been caught in a mysterious portal and transported to this time. At first it had frightened her, but she had quickly discovered that she liked this time far more than her own time. She felt at peace there, like she had come home after a long trip. That's why it had been such a shock when Eike, the man responsible for bringing her there had turned up ten days ago and offered to take her back to their time. She had refused, with difficulty. It wasn't like she had any doubts about leaving 2001, but that Eike was a hard person to refuse.

  


Even thought there was at most two years separating them, Eike made Dana feel warm and protected, he was almost like a father figure to her. She hated the idea of disappointing him, and it taken every good memory she had of that time to refuse Eike's offer.

  


As Dana went in past the manor's gate a woman brushed past Dana roughly.

"Hey!" objected Dana. She recognised the woman. It was one of the old, spiteful women who always hung around the town discussing the people of the town, and were always ready to pass on nasty rumors, accompanied by the woman's bratty daughter.

"Get out of the way! This is an emergency!" the woman snapped.

"What's happened?" Dana asked 

"The Alchemist's house has exploded! I told you that something like this would happen. That man was a danger to us all, always in that laboratory experimenting. I warned you!" the woman sounded almost gleeful. Normally Dana would have been disgusted at the woman's tone of voice and walked off, not bothering to care if she was being rude, however this news did interest her.

"When?" asked Dana.

"Why, it was only this afternoon!" Dana rolled her blue eyes, only a woman like this would still be so excitable so long after something like that had happened.

  


Dana was going to just go back to the manor, but for some reason she stopped. She didn't know why and she thought it was crazy, but she just felt compelled to go there. Slowly as if it wasn't really Dana, she turned and began to walk towards the alchemists house.

  


Inside her head, as she walked Dana could hear a voice, a voice that both frightened her and reminded her of...something. 

  


The Alchemists house was truly a mess. Even now the smoke still came from the interior. Dana paused. She had heard many stories about Dr Wagner, the mad alchemist. She didn't want to go in, she wanted to turn around and go back home, to the manor, but still that voice, that echoey, sinister, male voice plagued her head. Very slowly Dana entered the house.

  


"Margarete!" the young, light male voice filtered up from the basement just as Dana entered.

"Eike?" Dana said. She went into the basement without any trouble. For some reason she felt like...she knew this place, but that was impossible, Dana had never been there in her life.

  


There was no one in the basement. Dana frowned. She had definitely heard Eike's voice here, and in the same way she knew exactly where the basement was, she knew that there was no other way out of the basement. Then she noticed the large machine that said 2001. A time machine.

"Eike..." Dana whispered. Somehow she knew that Eike was in danger. For a minute Dana struggled with her feelings, thinking about using the machine to take her to Eike to warn him. To protect him, like a child would protect their parent.

  


_"Go upstairs, you cannot help him now. Go upstairs...and you will find what you are looking for," _that haunting voice had come back. Dana didn't hesitate, she almost ran up the stairs, and stopped. When she had come into the house the stairs had been blocked with debris, now however they were clear. 

  


She paused just outside what she knew to be the master bedroom. She knew that inside she would find something that would change her whole life, was she really ready for it.

  


The voice chimed in her head again, it was getting impatient. It was Dana's fear of the voice that made her go in to the room. The room radiated loneliness and despair. In the center of the room a picture lay on the bed.

  


Fearfully Dana looked at the picture, which showed two middle aged blonde people, one male, one female, and a very young boy who looked exactly like Dana. As Dana stared at it memories flooded her brain.

  


It was twenty years ago. The two adults Dana had seen in the picture were there looking after a new born baby. Looking at the proud parents, Dana gasped. The man, Dr Wagner, the baby's father looked exactly like Eike. Same blonde ponytail, same burning bright green eyes. The only difference were the clothes. Dr Wagner was dressed in long brown-black robes. The clothes of a scientist. Then Dana's point of vision moved forward, to the baby and Dana gasped again. It was her as a baby. Dana tried to deny it to herself, but she knew at first sight that it was true.

  


Suddenly Dana's vision clouded over. When it cleared again she was in the bedroom where her physical form stood now. Helena Wagner was putting the baby Dana into a cot.

"_Sweet dreams, Margarete," _ Helena said. The baby fell asleep, immediately. Silently Helena left. 

  


Dana's vision misted over again, this time when it cleared Dana was looking out of her own eyes, her eyes as a baby. She had just woken up, and was about to give a cry to alert her parents to that fact, when a figure dressed in black entered.

  


The baby Dana immediately opened her mouth and gave a wail. This black clad being scared her.

  


Meanwhile the adult Dana stumbled back a step. She knew who this was: the owner of the voice that had made her come here.

  


The figure in black stopped just short of the cot. Although it's voice was that of a male, it's face was female, almost beautiful, even with it's blood red eyes. It's body also seemed to be female, and it had a tail.

  


As the red-eyed woman picked the baby up, albeit with a lot of effort. Dana the baby screamed. Nobody came. The woman smiled.

"_No one's going to come, Margarete. You're going to play a key part in my existence, isn't that nice?"_ The woman vanished.

  


She appeared again, in 1981, but she was panting and gasping. Just the effort of carrying Dana seemed to be exhausting her. She set Dana down in a snowy street and walked off. Dana cried but no one paid attention. A sound like a gunshot resounded throughout the air. When the woman returned she was carrying another baby, one with mid-brown hair.

"_Farewell Margarete," _the woman said. She vanished. The baby still, with Dana seeing through her eyes looked up to see a huge, dull, grey building. The orphanage where Dana had grown up.

  


Dana collapsed backward in shock, her head hit the hard floor and she lost consciousness. As her body slumped to the floor and the world went back she found herself in a pitch-black void, in a tunnel of dark blue and purple light. As she sailed through it, a bubble of light came to float down in front of her. Inside the bubble was the woman in black.

  


"_Hello, Margarete,"_ she said. 

  


  



	3. Cruel Fate

Chapter 3: Cruel Fate.

  


The tall man stood deadly still in the marketplatz. His bright green eyes were open with shock, his long blonde hair falling across his forehead. If front of him was a young woman dressed in a red crop top and black jeans. Her face was furrowed into a frown, her mid-brown eyes blazing with anger.

"Margarete? Is she all you can think about! It's not just her life that's been messed up! Homunculus stole twenty years of my life! My mother and father think I'm dead, and all you can think about is if Margarete finds out who she is!" Dana Brum had long since gone past screaming. Eike flinched, she'd been going on for at least ten minutes since she had caught up to him at the marketplazt, staring at the tree where he'd found the Philosophers Stone. Dana paused briefly to take a deep breath, her face the colour of a tomato.

"Dana...I'm really sorry. I swear that I had no idea that Homunculus had switched you and Margarete. I told Homunculus that I didn't like it. She offered to switch you back, but not until after I cheated my fate....All I was doing was trying to stay alive. I didn't want to die," Eike said, softly. Dana paused, her face softening. Eike's anguish was twisting her heart. After all she did love him. She had loved him for four long years, but that was a only a second to him...the time traveller.

  


"But now...Homunculus is gone," Dana noted thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Eike said. Dana tilted her head down slightly. 

"You said....Margarete was happy in that time right? Even though she didn't know anyone?" Dana inquired. Eike just nodded. "Then perhaps it better that she doesn't know, I mean my...her family...are all...'Cept maybe Hugo and who knows where..." Dana's eyes were full of pain. "I always wondered, always worried about why I didn't...why I didn't love my family. I cared for them, wouldn't have wanted anything to happen to them...but when I really thought about it, I never loved them like a real family. But still they took care of me all these years and now they...

"Dana. It's all right. I know how you feel," Eike said soothingly. Dana sniffed and stepped closer to him, her lovely eyes full of tears.

"I know you do," Dana said, her voice reminding Eike of a soft breeze.

  


For a second that felt like an eternity they just stared into each others eyes. They moved closer and closer to each other and...something fell to ground from the sky between them, they both jumped and moved apart.

"How did you find out?" Eike said, all too aware that his face was red. He knew would have happened.

"I sneaked into Eck...my fathers office and found him looking at the comb you gave after he tried to kill you. He knew it was his daughters and I remembered what you said to me," Dana replied.

"What I said?" Eike asked, baffled.

"You said that _I guess you could say you finally came home,_"

"Yeah. Before she died Homunculus said that fate would always correct itself in the end." Eike said.

"Eike...Isn't there any way I can tell my father who I really am? He misses Dana...me so much," Dana pleaded.

"I can't think of any way he would believe you...anyway it would just lead to complications," Eike said

"I don't believe you! All you can think about is 'complications'! Do you even care about other people's feelings other than your own? Sometimes I wonder why I even fell in lo..." Dana trailed off

"Fell in what," Eike's voice had a slight hint of anger in it. He felt so guilty over the sacrifices people had made so he could live...to give the Philosophers Stone to Dr Wagner, and these people hadn't even had the option of their sacrifices and that guilt just rushed up when Dana said that, but the guilt turned to anger. Dana looked shocked. She, like most people had never seen Eike Kusch even the slightest bit angry, not even when he had confronted Hugo.

  


To give himself time to cool down Eike glanced at the ground where some mysterious object had fallen to the ground, thinking that it was just something that fallen out of his pocket. It wasn't. It was something that looked horribly like...

"The Digipad," Eike muttered.

"No way...it can't be... she's dead," Dana whispered.

  


A sudden gust of freezing cold wind made both Eike and Dana spin round to face the tree. There they saw a portal, almost identical the ones Eike disappeared into when he went to a different time. In the middle of it was Margarete, almost transparent, like a ghost. Her blonde hair was sticking out all over the place, her blue eyes were wide with sheer terror, and the right side of her face was covered in blood, emerging from under her hair. Her image flickered urgently.

"Margarete?" said Eike before he could stop himself. If she could hear...he didn't want her to find out who she really was.

"_Eike...please_.." Margarete faded with the portal. 

"MARGARETE!" yelled Eike. The Digipad glowed green, just the way it had before Eike had to go to a different time.

  


Inwardly Eike sighed. _Not again_ he thought. He bent down and picked up the Digipad and froze as he did. Memories of being stabbed, poisoned and run over by a car ran through his mind, being dead, over and over again. Dimly above him he heard Dana calling him, urgently. His vision swam and blurred. _Am I going to die again._ Eike wondered crazily. Slowly he felt his consciousness slip away, felt himself falling.

  


Dana watched with horror. As she saw Eike's eyes closing, as he started to fall forward, Dana didn't hesitate, didn't think of the consequences as she lunged forward and grabbed the Digipad.

  


As soon as the Dana grabbed the Digipad, Eike's view cleared, the images of the darkness of death fled back into the deepest darkest corner of Eike mind where he kept those memories. He straightened up, still swaying somewhat. 

"Thanks Dana," Eike said with heartfelt relief. "For a second there, I thought I was going to..." 

"Are you okay? What happened!?" Dana cut in.

"I really don't know. When I touched the Digipad I just remembered everything...dying...being dead." Eike replied.

  


Dana's hands started to shake incontrollbly. Her eyes glazed over, and suddenly she was in a snowy day looking up as a young pretty woman, who was smiling down at her lovingly. Miriam Brum, Dana's mother, when she was much younger, wrapped in white furs, walked, almost ran down at snowy street carrying Dana, when a gun shot rang through the air, Miriam was knocked to the ground by a flash of green, black and yellow. Dana went flying into the snow and was picked up by...Homunculus. Homunculus walked a little further down the road where another baby, one who had just started to grow blonde hair and had light blue eyes lay in the snow. Homunculus was gasping for breath. She seemed exhausted. She smiled at the baby on the ground.

"_Farewell, Margarete."_ Homunculus said. She vanished with Dana.

  


Dana and Homunculus flew through a black void in a tunnel shaped passage way of dark-blue and purple light into the middle ages into the Alchemists house. In what used to be Helena's and Wagners bedroom, lay a cot. Gently Homunculus laid Dana on the cot and, without another word, disappeared.

  


Eike stood, motionless staring at Dana as her eyes glazed over. Cautiously he reached an arm out to Dana, as though afraid he might explode into flames if he touched her. Dana suddenly came to, her brown eyes open with shock.

"It's okay. You're safe now," Eike told her. He took the Digipad from Dana and swiftly turned and walked back towards the tree fighting the images attacking his mind.

"Eike! Where are you going?" Dana called.

"I have to help Margarete. She's in trouble," Eike said

"I'm coming with you!" Dana said determinedly. Eike started, his eyes widening.

"Dana..." Eike began.

"You just think about Margarete, but it's not just her life that's been messed up. This is my life. I've spent twenty years of my life in the past. And I just know that I have to come with you....back to the past." Eike was thinking about how to stop her from coming, but he couldn't. Dana was right. Hers was just another life that Homunculus had messed up, so she could be created. He took the Philosophers stone he had found at the tree and looked at it, carefully. Hating himself for endangering Dana yet again, he nodded. 

  


Dana stepped right up to him. Breathing harder than normal, Eike began to press the buttons that would move him to another time. Just has he had expected the Middle Ages appeared, two weeks after Homunculus had been made.

  


Eike and Dana vanished and reappeared in the Middle Ages marketplatz, just outside a silent circle of people, their heads bowed in prayer. Two people seemed to have a stronger presence in the circle than the others. Dana gasped.

"That's the squire!" she said, pointing to one of the men in the circle. Dana suddenly looked herself up and down. "Eike...look at what I'm wearing!"

"That's okay. Nobody ever said anything to me," Eike replied absently. 

  


The prayer had obviously come to an end. The people were wondering off. The man Dana had pointed out to be the squire bore a strong resemblance to Alfred Brum, laid his hand on the other man who seemed to have stronger presence than the other people.

"I am sorry Rick. We shall never forget Margarete, but she shall live on in our hearts forever." the Squire said. Rick merely nodded. Eike rushed forward.

"Excuse me, could you tell me about Margarete please." Eike asked politely. The Squire frowned.

"Margarete was a chamber maid in my service. On the thirteenth of this month, after her a session at the Ateliers, she just vanished. I have been assured by the gate-keepers that Margarete did not leave the city after this time. Therefore we are forced assume the worst. Excuse me but I do not think we have met before?" The Squire spoke in a stern tone.

"Are you sure Margarete isn't in the city somewhere?" Eike said, completely ignoring the Squire. Next to the Squire the man named Rick sighed heavily.

"Indeed, I hoped so. I searched for her endlessly, day after day, night after night. We were to be married, you know and I couldn't believe that Margarete would just leave me like that. I was on business at the time of her disappearance and she was waiting for me, but I could find no trace of Margarete. Two days ago I gave up. Margarete could not have left the city, and no one has seen her, so the only thing I could think of is that she had starved to death." Rick said, heavily.

"You can't say that! You haven't found a body yet!" Dana protested.

  


Rick lowered his head and stared at the ground. The Squire patted his shoulder.

"I must ask you to leave. This is a very upsetting time," The Squire said "Margarete is certainly dead, there is no question about that. Now please leave,"

"You don't mean..." Eike whispered, horrified. The Squire frowned, and Dana pulled Eike along with her.

"Margarete..." muttered Eike.

"Eike, think about this. Margarete can't be dead. We saw her, right?" Dana said, in the same quiet tone as Eike's

  


"So sad..when one so young passes from our midst," a man just appeared out of nowhere to walk beside Eike and Dana. Eike recognised the man, it was Karl Franssen, his favourite artist. "I was the last person to see her alive you know," Karl said. "Ah yes. But she was a mysterious girl,"

"What do you mean?" Dana asked.

"Why, when she left my my shop just before her disappearance she had the most unusual conversation with a young man just outside my shop. She was talking about time-travel. Time travel! It so inspired me that I painted a picture," Karl spoke dreamily. "And then I saw her go into the blown up Alchemists house, and that was the last anyone saw of her."

"The Alchemist's House!?" Eike and Dana spoke as one.

"Yes, but the place was a wreck, yet Margarete disappeared!" Karl said.

"How do you know that?" Dana asked.

"Well...truth is I was so intrigued by that conversation Margarete had I followed her. But the house was covered in debris! There was no way Margarete could have gone anywhere! And then her body was found, buried near the church. Of course I don't believe for one second that the body was really Margarete's but one would believe me if I told them," Karl replied. He walked off to his shop.

  


"The Alchemists House...Eike I have a really bad feeling about this." Dana said unhappily.

"So do I," Eike said.

  


They ran to the Alchemists House. It looked exactly the same as it as the last time Eike had seen it. They went in to find that only basement was accessible. Eike made a move towards it, but Dana didn't move.

"Are you coming?" Eike asked.

"No...Please don't ask me why but I just feel that this is something only you should do, like when I found out who I really am. I'm gonna try to get upstairs."

"Dana, you could break your neck," Eike said, looking at the debris covered stairs.

"I know," Dana said.

  


Eike turned and went down the stairs, into the basement. The basement still looked the same as it did before the accident, before Homunculus had been created. As Eike looked around at all the equipment the air on a tube of a clear, bubbly liquid began to shimmer and then took on a distinctly red colour. 

  


Homunculus appeared sat on top of the tube, but she didn't look her usual cocky self, in face she appeared confused. Eike looked down and realized that he stood on top of the pentagram shape Homunculus said she didn't like.

"_How did you...hmmm. I must be losing my touch in my old age,"_ Homunculus said.

"Homunculus! Where's Margarete! What have you done to her!" shouted Eike.

"_Margarete. I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about. Time is such a complicated thing isn't it?" _Homunculus had regained her normal self-confidence. _"How many years have passed now? How is your memory, Eike. How are you finding eternal life?" _

"I don't know what you're talking about! Just tell me where Margarete is," Eike yelled.

"_Dear, dear, we are impatient, aren't we? You see, I don't know who Margarete is, so you must be thinking of me in the future Eike. Oh I'm sorry that is your name now isn't it?" _Homunculus said, cryptically.

"If you're Homunculus from this time than how do you know who I am?" Eike asked.

"_Well..,"_ Homunculus smirked "_I may have been trapped for ages in that red stone, but even so, I would be a pretty poor genie if I couldn't remember my last master, don't you think?"_

_"_What are you talking about? Dr Wagner was the one who released you from the Philosopher's Stone." Eike said.

"_Hmmm...So you haven't recovered your memory. So then how...Never mind. Long explanations bore me." _Homunculus seemed to be thinking out loud.

"What are you going on about!" Eike demanded "I don't have time for this!"

"_Well, you completed your mission, and I'm free from the stone, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you, Eike. You're Dr Wagner. How does it feel to know that you are a genius alchemist, Eike?" _Homunculus seemed to be enjoying telling Eike.

"That's impossible!"

_"Why?"_ Homunculus asked.

"I'm only twenty-two, I live in the year 2001, so if I was really Dr Wagner, I'd be long dead."

"_Oh dear. You just don't get it do you Eike? I'm a genie, and Dr Wagner released me. Haven't you read any Arabian Night stories?" _Homunculus said.

"What?" asked Eike, confused.

"_Dr Wagner released me, so I had to grant him a wish, any wish, but at the cost of his soul when he died. He told me that he envied a young man's youth, and wished to have his back and to stay that age forever. I granted his wish and changed him from his late forties-early fifties, I can't remember exactly how old he was now, into a twenty-two year old, but unfortunately, Dr Wagner had done his homework. He made a large-scale pentagram drawing on the floor, the one which you are now standing on. The only thing I can not stand. It worked and I was sealed back up, but before I went I had enough time to give you a little present. I wiped your memories, so that you could never remember anything. Of course it didn't work all your life, because you can remember people you've met and events you've seen." _Homunculus said.

  


Eike gasped. Homunculus had no reason to lie. She didn't know that her creation depended on him entirely. He was the reason behind everything. If it hadn't been for him the chain of events that had lead to Hugo trying to kill him would have never started. He had known what Homunculus was before he had released her, as Dr Wagner.

  


_Margarete._ Eike thought. She's not my ancestor, she's my daughter_._ And he was cursed to live an eternal life, until he died, when he would be at Homunculus mercy forever.

  


"EIKE!" Dana's voice called from upstairs. Eike ignored her, absorbed in his own thoughts.

"_Don't bother apologizing for sealing me up just after I had granted your wish, will you," _Homunculus sounded sulky.

  


Eike wasn't paying attention. Fate...it was just so cruel, so cruel.

_And now I live my life, as Margarete did in the future. In the wrong time. When I should be dead. _Eike thought, sadly.

  


_For me the future will be my past._

  


  


  


  


  



End file.
